Opeth concert - India 2009

Swedish progressive heavy metal band, Opeth will be performing in Chennai on 25th January 2009 at IIT Madras for its Saarang festival.

for updates check their website.

Altec Lansing VS3251 5.1 surround sound system with 'Creative SoundBlaster Live' soundcard.

Altec Lansing VS3251 5.1 surround sound system is a good deal for its price. There are a few things to take care of when using this sound system with a 'Creative SoundBlaster Live' soundcard.The Altec Lansing VS3251 has two sources of inputs one for 5.1 cables at the back and another AUX-IN in the front near the volume knob.

Modes
There are two modes 'Stereo/Surround' on the remote labelled 'ster/surr'.In stereo mode the front left, front right and subwoofer work alone.if you press the 'ster/surr' button again then your in 5.1 surround sound and all the 6 speakers should work.

Input Sources
(a)If you connect a 3.5mm cable from any audio source to the AUX-IN input then all the 5 satellite speakers AND the subwoofer work properly.

(b)Now if you connect the three cables provided (green, black and yellow) from your 'Creative SoundBlaster Live' soundcard to the back of the 5.1 surround sound system as per the Altec Lansing VS3251 manual then you are supposed to get sound from the respective speakers as detailed in 'Modes' above. i.e in stereo mode 3 speakers (front left, front right and subwoofer work) and in surround sound mode all 6 speakers

With Creative SoundBlaster Live soundcard, there are some changes that need to be made using the 'Creative surround sound mixer' software for the surround sound to work on all 6 speakers.Make sure that you are in 5.1 surround sound mode and that each satellite speaker is working. you will not get any bass from the subwoofer at this stage. then open 'Creative surround sound mixer' under 'advanced' there is a 'bass redirection' checkbox, check it and the 'cross over' volume level will be enabled increase it to a desired level above 35% and you will start to hear bass coming from the subwoofer IN 5.1 surround mode.

However even making this change, i still cannot hear anything coming from the center speaker even though i am using Dolby Digial 5.1 enabled DVDs. Suggestions/comments are welcome.

Iron Maiden scheduled to perfom on 15th Feb 2009 in Bangalore,India

For those who missed the earlier concerts here's some news from http://www.ironmaiden.com/

QUOTE
IRON MAIDEN FLY HIGH AGAIN FOR THE FINAL LEG OF THEIR ‘SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME WORLD TOUR

February 2009

Fri 13th - UAE -Dubai Media City Amphitheatre

Sun 15th - India - Bangalore Royal Challenge Rock In India Fri 20th - New Zealand - Auckland. Mount Smart StadiumSat 21st - New Zealand - Christchurch. AMI StadiumWed 25th - Mexico - Monterrey Estadio Technologico.Thurs 26th - Mexico - Guadalajara Arena VFG Jalisco.Sat 28th - Mexico - Mexico City Fero Sol Stadium Complex
March 2009South and Central America - details coming soon.
UNQUOTE

Slash's guitar setup

This is a picture of Slash's guitar setup. For more details please check this url.